THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



137 



Royal Muscadine, Champion Hamburg, 

 andTivntham Black. Camellia cuttings 

 are to be struck in sandy peat. 



Books ox Plants. — T. Seriven. — 

 You may find some first-rate botani- 

 cal works in the catalogue of second- 

 books issued by Mr. Wesley, Queen's 

 Heid Passage, Paternoster Row, E.C. 

 Mr Wlieldon, Panyer Alley, Pater- 

 noster Row, frequently has second- 

 band botanical works for sale. The 

 handsomest plant picture-book of the 

 present day. is the " Illustrated Bou- 

 quet," published in quarterly parts, 

 at 10s. 6d. each, by Messrs. E. G. Hen- 

 derson and Son, St. John's Wood, Lon- 

 don, N.W. There are about forty 

 numbers new published. The "Floral 

 Magazine," published by Messrs. Reeve 

 at 2s. 6d. monthly, is admirably illus- 

 trated. " L' Illustration Horticole," pub- 

 lished by M. Verschaffelt, of Ghent, is 

 a beautiful and able work, principally 

 devoted to the illustration of new plants; 

 this may be obtained through the post, 

 by subscribing 15}. per annum. Appli- 

 cation for it may be made to M. Ver- 

 schaffelt direct, or to Mr. Silberrad, of 

 Tower Street, London, E.C. Lastly, the 

 " Botanical Magazine," edited by Sir W. 

 J. Hooker, is published monthly, price 

 3s. 6d., and is indispensable to all who 

 are interested in new plants. There are 

 other works of the kind, some of them 

 worthless, others scarcely necessary, ex- 

 cept to persons who require all the 

 illustrated floral and botanical works, 

 and such, of course, are in no need of 

 guidance as to which are best worth the 

 price charged for them. There is no fee 

 charged for replies to queries. 



Would you oblige me with your opinion, 

 in your May number, of the following 

 with respect to my " Vines," planted 

 three years ago last October, in the best 

 of borders, and well drained. The 

 second year they ran up to the top of 

 the rafters, and were cut down two- 

 thirds ; last year they bore fruit, per- 

 haps six or eight bunches, each very fine, 

 and were cut down one-third ; this year, 

 the fourth, they are very vigorous, show- 

 ing more than an average of a bunch and 

 a half from each eye, and seem very strong 

 and vigorous. We have at present left 

 one bunch to each eye. Is this quantity 

 of fruit, too much, and how many bunches 

 would you recommend to each vine ? — 

 [You have done well, and there is no 

 doubt will go on doing well. You do 

 not say what is the length of rafter, and 

 that is an important matter in connec- 

 tion with every question relating to 



vines. -If you leave eight bunches on 

 each rod you will probably tax the vines 

 as severely as they will bear this season; 

 and by reducing the crop to that aver- 

 age, the bunches will probably be fine. 

 Leave none on the leading shoot, and 

 do not stop that till it reaches the top of 

 the house. This came after the May 

 number was printed.] 

 Chrysanthemum Culture. — I do not find 

 anything that quite meets my case in 

 any of the papers in the Floral World 

 on the subject of Chrysanthemums. My 

 practice has hitherto been to take cut- 

 tings in April, and to plant out into the 

 open ground about June, or as early as 

 the plants are strong enough ; they get 

 rich soil, liquid manure, etc., and at the 

 end of September are potted for flower- 

 ing, and placed in an orchard house 

 from which the trees have been removed 

 to other quarters. By this method we 

 have good strong plants, which keep 

 their leaves well, and have some good 

 flowers, but generally the flowers are 

 scanty and late, and some last season 

 did not flower at all. The pompones 

 succeeded best, except Bob, which I 

 have had for three seasons with hardly 

 as many flowers each season. Would it 

 be an improvement to pot earlier, say in 

 the end of July ? or must the plants be 

 kept in pots all the season, to ensure 

 plenty of flowers ? None of my neigh- 

 bours cultivate chrysanthemums, so I 

 have no opportunity for comparing 

 notes. My varieties are Queen of Eng- 

 land, Alfred Salter, Christine, Prince 

 Albert, Jardin des Plantes, Yellow Per- 

 fection, Nancy de Sermet, King of Ane- 

 mones, and some others of which I do 

 not know the names, besides a number 

 of pompones. Can anything be done 

 now to prevent the recurrence of a fungus 

 on the leaves of some pear trees, which 

 last season totally destroyed the crop of 

 fruit? — Constant Reader. [We print 

 this at length because we hear of many 

 failures in chrysanthemum growing ; 

 and as every point in the practice, so far 

 as can be judged by the most experi- 

 enced cultivators, has been treated at 

 length in the Floral World, the causes 

 of failure in particular instances can only 

 be discovered by publishing the details 

 of failures when they come to hand. 

 Our readers are aware that we grow 

 these plants largely for plunging. Wo 

 may as well say that a failure with even 

 a single plant, much less a batch, is a 

 rare occurrence with us ; yet we grow as 

 many varieties as can by any possibility 

 be worked into the plunging system, in 



